Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, dc comics, gotham city, Tom King

Gotham City Year One Previews With Racially Offensive Language Warning

Published Sat, 24 Sep 2022 11:58:14 -0500

A few weeks ago, Bleeding Cool ran the news that Gotham City Year One, a new DC comic book series by Tom King, Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur, set many years before Batman and Bruce Wayne, and starring the original Detective Comics police detective Slam Bradley, would come with a new warning for DC Comics. That might have been influenced by DC Comics stories from the thirties and forties that inspire this comic, starring the character famously depicted racist caricatures of East Asian people, which previously saw DC Comics cancel the Detective Comics Before Batman volume.

In a preview of Gotham City: Year One #1, posted by Tom King in his newsletter, we get confirmation of that.

"This comic contains language of a racially offensive nature and may not be suitable for all age groups. Its inclusion is an intentional creative choice intended to highlight the fact that language if this type was frequently deployed in past decades and remains in use today, even as contexts evolve. Readers for whole such language is triggering or hurtful should be advised."

Though you don't see any of that in the preview itself. Tom King states "As background, this book is the story of how Gotham went from being just another fine American city to being GOTHAM CITY—the home of sin and monsters and Batman. In 1961 Slam Bradley, who first appeared in Detective Comics #1, investigates the horrible kidnapping of the Princess of Gotham, Helen Wayne, the daughter of Bruce's grandparents, Richard and Constance Wayne. It is a dark and cool and fun noir full of insane twists and turns that will redefine the Batman mythos. If you you're into Human Target or Supergirl or Strange Adventures, this is the book very much in that vein. And, on a personal level, I've had as much fun putting this book together as I have doing any other project. I'd write Bradley mysteries for the rest of my life if they'd let me."

And these are the solicitations to Gotham City Year One, below, just in case retailers or readers want to take this into account.

GOTHAM CITY YEAR ONE #1 (OF 6) CVR A PHIL HESTER & ERIC GAPSTUR
(W) Tom King (A/CA) Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur
There once was a shining city on the water, a home for families, hope, and prosperity. It was Gotham and it was glorious. The story of its fall from grace, the legend that would birth the Bat, has remained untold for 80 years. That's about to change. Superstar creators Tom King and Phil Hester team up for the first time to tell the definitive origin of Gotham City: how it became the cesspool of violence and corruption it is today, and how it harbored and then unleashed the sin that led to the rise of the Dark Knight. Two generations before Batman, private investigator Slam Bradley gets tangled in the "kidnapping of the century" as the infant Wayne heir disappears in the night…and so begins a brutal, hard-boiled, epic tale of a man living on the edge and a city about to burn.
Retail: $4.99 FOC Date: 9/11/2022 In-Store Date: 10/4/2022

GOTHAM CITY YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6) CVR A PHIL HESTER & ERIC GAPSTUR
(W) Tom King (A/CA) Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur
The bloody, bare-knuckled crime series continues! A bruised and battered Slam Bradley find himself embroiled in a shocking case as the infant heiress to the Wayne fortune has been kidnapped! But as with all things in Gotham City, nothing is what it seems… Can he solve the case in time to save a young life and secure the Wayne legacy or will the secrets of Gotham bury them all? Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 11/1/2022

GOTHAM CITY YEAR ONE #3 (OF 6) CVR A PHIL HESTER & ERIC GAPSTUR
(W) Tom King (A/CA) Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur
Slam Bradley has been one step behind the kidnappers the entire time…can he turn the tables in time to save the infant heiress to the Wayne fortune? Is this hardened private investigator prepared to deal with a dark, deadly twist that will define Gotham City for generations to come?
Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 12/6/2022

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